Chapter 14:
Enough is Enough
The feast dragged on with something less than the usual effervescence, and even those who did not take joy in such foolishness were left with the impression that something was not quite right about all of this. Severus was one of those who was something less than impressed with the atmosphere of the feast, though that was likely due in part to his still-smarting sense of pride—Malfoy had paid him a visit in his office two hours before the students were due to arrive and had suggested in no uncertain terms that he might want to do something about the state of his hair. He'd come close to ignoring her thinly veiled order, but had finally decided that to do so would be petulant in the extreme. Still, it grated at his dignity to be told to 'wash up' as though he were a small child being caught playing in mud puddles.
If anything were a balm to his wounded pride, it was the fact that several other members of the staff seemed to have had similar orders dispersed to them. Even Hagrid's wild appearance was somewhat more tame than Snape had ever seen it.
A dull throbbing had been developing steadily behind his right eye, and by the time dessert plates were being scraped of the sweet crumbs, a drum corp would have been hard pressed to match the pounding in his head. At least the day was almost over. He was looking forward to seeing the Slytherins settled and then finding his own bed, and if all went well, he had every hope he could be nestled into his pillows before eleven.
Every hope, that is, until Headmistress Malfoy caught Minerva and him as they were leaving and said in a low voice, "Please inform everyone that we will be meeting briefly in the staff room in fifteen minutes."
For a moment, Severus forgot how utterly pissed off he was with Minerva, and she apparently forgot how exasperated she was with him, because they exchanged a glance that spoke as eloquently as ever.
"Headmistress," Severus began with exaggerated patience, "the students have just arrived after a lengthy journey aboard a train. They have not been allowed to do magic all summer, and many have been separated from their friends for the past six weeks. Do you not think it wise to dispatch the faculty into the corridors against the possibility of mishaps?"
"There are a number of things we need to discuss and I prefer to get it out of the way immediately. The prefects can see to the newer students."
Severus folded his arms, his eyes narrowed at Malfoy's back as she disappeared through the door.
"Isn't this just ducky," Minerva muttered, then gestured vaguely to the teachers on the left. "You spread the wonderful news to them, and I'll see if I can't catch the others." Severus snorted. Flitwick and Vector had left the Great Hall together, chattering animatedly, and Severus could just imagine that nothing short of a bucket of water over their heads was going to alter their course. Scowling darkly, he turned back into the Great Hall.
"Malfoy wishes a word," he said succinctly as Pomona and Sybil came to a halt a few steps in front of him. "We are to be in the staff room in fifteen minutes."
"This is preposterous!" Pomona exclaimed. "We have students to settle in. What can possibly be so crucial that it cannot wait until tomorrow?"
"I have no idea," Severus replied. "Perhaps she now wishes to discuss the state of repair of the students' book bags."
There was a faint ripple of snickers and snorts, though it was only a pause in the general grousing and grumbling. Everyone started towards the staff room, though, and as the last of the faculty filed past him, Severus fell in behind. A few steps down the corridor, Lupin slowed and fell into step beside him.
"I am certain that I told you to stay out of my path," Severus said quietly, barely keeping his voice civil.
"You did," Lupin replied, indifferently. "But at times colleagues have need for a word. Why is everyone so bothered about a staff meeting?"
Severus gave him a withering look, and for once it had nothing to do with who the other wizard was. "Give it a week," he advised, "and you'll understand perfectly." He quickened his pace and outdistanced Lupin.
In fifteen minutes, the faculty was all gathered in the staff room with one notable exception. Regalia Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. The professors' postures spoke volumes of their opinions of this impromptu gathering—none of them was particularly pleased to be there, though some hid the fact better than others.
Minerva sat drumming her fingers on the table; Pomona kept glancing at her pocket watch, then looking in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room; Filius sighed every few seconds and watched the door; Severus sat with his arms folded, his lips set in a tight line, shaking his head every so often.
"It's been fifteen minutes," Pomona announced needlessly as she snapped her watch shut again. "Where is she?"
"Probably patrolling the corridors and looking for statues that are misbehaving," Minerva muttered.
"Really," Pomona grumbled. "What can possibly be so important? I can only imagine the trouble some of the students will get into while we're all sequestered in here."
"I mentioned that," Severus said stiffly. "Malfoy seems to be under the impression that the prefects are capable of handling whatever might arise."
Rolanda Hooch snorted gracelessly. "I thought Fudge said she had teaching experience," she mumbled.
"This is ridiculous," Pomona said, standing and walking to the door. She opened it and peered out, then slammed it again. "We need to be settling the students, not sitting here waiting for the Headmistress to decide to attend the meeting she thought was so necessary!"
"Calm down, Pomona. The prefects can, at the very least, get everyone settled," Minerva said, massaging her temples.
Pomona and Severus both glared at her. "Perhaps if you trusted a little less to your prefects, Gryffindor would not hold the distinction of the worst-behaved House in Hogwarts," Severus said sharply.
"The Slytherins are hardly angels," Minerva pointed out.
"And, being aware of this fact, I take my duties as Head of Slytherin very seriously and…"
"Will you two please stop arguing?" Pomona snapped. She looked at her pocket watch again. "If Malfoy isn't here in five more minutes, I say we leave her a note with our apologies. She cannot expect us to…"
Whatever Pomona had been saying was cut short by the door opening and Malfoy walking in, her head lifted regally. "My apologies," she said as she shut the door and took her seat. "It appears that the staircase I have been using doesn't always lead to this corridor."
"Very well," Minerva said testily. "Can we get on with it now?"
Malfoy looked vaguely affronted, but nodded. "Of course," she replied, producing the deceptively thin folder. More than one of the staff was eyeing it warily.
"There are only three things. First, I have made copies of the rules, and I want each of you to spend the first fifteen minutes of each of your classes tomorrow going over them with your students. I think some of them are simply preposterous, and some of the records from previous years indicate that students do not take them seriously. I want you all to impress upon each and every student that these rules are not to be broken, and that disobeying them will result in punishment." As she spoke, she handed a copy of the rules to each of them. To Severus' mild surprise—though why he bothered to be surprised at anything Regalia Malfoy did was beyond him—the rules were nearly eight pages long. As he flipped through them, he found line after line of neatly penned sentences beginning with the words 'Students shall not'.
"Secondly—"
"You want all of us to go over these with all of our classes?" Minerva interrupted her.
"Yes."
"That's ridiculous. Surely once is more than enough."
"It obviously has not been in the past," Malfoy replied. "There will be no excuse for disobedience. I want you to go over the rules with all of your classes."
Minerva rolled her eyes slightly, but turned the stack of parchment face down on the table in front of her.
"Are there any other questions regarding these rules?" Malfoy asked. No one spoke up. "Very well, then. The second thing I wanted to discuss. I was thinking about the schedules at dinner and—"
"If you think we're revising timetables again, you're sorely mistaken," Minerva said through clenched teeth. "I don't care if I have a class scheduled at the bottom of the lake. Those tables are not changing at this point."
A murmur of agreement rose from the table, and Malfoy frowned slightly, looking at the parchment in her hands. "I was merely going to propose a few minor changes. For example—"
"Is anyone scheduled to teach two classes at once?" Severus asked, taking it upon himself to interrupt this time.
"Well, no, but…"
"Is anyone scheduled to teach a class that is not theirs?"
"No…"
"Do we have two classes being taught in the same classroom at the same time?"
"No. But—"
"Then frankly, Headmistress, I am of the opinion that the timetables are perfect the way they are."
"Agreed!" Pomona said briskly.
"I'll second that."
"Absolutely."
"No need to change them."
"Maybe we should listen to—" Lupin began, but before Severus could do more than glower at him, Hooch interrupted.
"Shut up, Remus."
A wounded look flickered across Lupin's face, but that was nothing compared to the expression on Malfoy's face. For once, Severus couldn't have cared less what Lupin thought, one way or another.
"Very well," Malfoy said quietly. "We'll discuss the timetables… later. The last thing I wanted to discuss was the students' dress. It really was abominable this evening. I want everyone to make a concerted effort to see that the students are properly dressed at all times."
Severus turned his mind back to the feast, a frown creasing his brow as he tried to remember what would have been so offensive about the way the students were dressed. He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary—the students were wearing their black robes, and if any of them hadn't been, he certainly hadn't noticed. Which meant it unlikely anyone wasn't wearing their uniform properly.
"What are you talking about?" Tempora asked the question on his mind, and on the minds of several others around the table if expressions were any indication.
"Wrinkles, frayed hems, faded robes. Some of the students looked generally shabby and—"
"That is enough nonsense for one evening I think," Minerva said suddenly. "Really, Malfoy. If you haven't enough to keep you busy, come see me and I will set you to marking homework. This is enough."
Malfoy's eyes widened marginally at the tone Minerva was using, and she wasn't the only one who was slightly wide-eyed at the table. Severus exchanged glances with Pomona, who suddenly appeared a bit more interested in the staff room than the door.
"Minerva," Filius said nervously, reaching for her sleeve. "Perhaps you'd better…"
"No," she said firmly. "I have had quite enough. The meetings were preposterous before school started, but this has reached a new level of absurd."
Regalia's face tightened slightly. "I have been very understanding so far, but this—"
"You have been a royal pain in the arse," Minerva snapped. "And enough is enough. Dress code and time tables. Classes start tomorrow, and if you're not aware of it, that means that you will have more than enough to keep yourself occupied without calling useless meetings and wasting our time with drivel. This meeting is over. We all have plenty to do, and if you do not, then I suggest that you go to the library and find yourself an interesting book."
Minerva stood, smoothing her robes, then looked around the table. "Well?" she asked. "You all heard me. This meeting is finished."
"I have not dismissed you," Malfoy said pointedly.
"I'd like to see you keep us here," Minerva retorted. Severus attempted to catch her eye, but she was too busy squaring off with Malfoy.
"This time you are going too far, and I will not have this kind of insubordination."
"Are you going to sack me?" Minerva challenged, and Severus kicked her ankle, earning himself a glare for his trouble. "Don't you sit there and look superior, Severus Snape, and don't you pretend that you're thrilled to be here."
"No, I am not thrilled to be here, but I know when to keep my mouth shut," he replied pointedly. For a moment, the tension in the room shifted to a tension between Snape and McGonagall, both of whom were glaring levelly at each other.
"Sit down, Professor McGonagall," Malfoy said sharply, slicing through the tension. Her voice carried an ice-cold edge as sharp as a knife's blade, an edge Severus recognized from years of having heard Lucius Malfoy's voice take on that edge. He looked away, his arms still folded across his chest; if Minerva was going to make a fool of herself, it wouldn't be out of pride over this staring contest.
The silence was weighty, pressing down on the room like a blanket suffocating a fire.
"Allow me to rephrase then," Malfoy said quietly. "Either sit down, or leave. You have disrupted this meeting for long enough."
Minerva snorted. "These meetings have disrupted this school's functionings for long enough," she retorted. "And leaving is precisely what I had intended to do. As I said, this meeting is adjourned." She stepped away from her chair and shoved it back under the table. As she glanced back at the remaining staff members, there was a tightness to her expression that said she understood perfectly what she was doing.
She stalked towards the door and left, and it took only a glance around the table to see that everyone was considering their options. On the one hand, there wasn't a witch or wizard in that room who didn't want to do precisely what Minerva had just done. On the other hand, it was already clear that Malfoy was quite put out with the Transfiguration professor. There was a general desire to support Minerva, to make a show of solidarity, but to what cost? Regalia Malfoy had proven herself more than capable of doing what others would have barely considered possible, and whether they liked the changes or not, not one of the teachers could have said with any degree of confidence that the Headmistress would not be capable of dismissing the lot of them and replacing them by morning.
Finally, Rolanda stood. "Well, since no one seems to have anything else to add, I guess the meeting really is over."
As though this were the cue they had been waiting for, Vector and Sinastra joined her. Pomona was next, though Severus suspected that her departure had more to do with her desire to get to the Hufflepuff common room before the students had a conniption fit.
One by one, the remaining staff excused themselves, until only Severus and Lupin remained. Severus stood and cleared his throat. "The staff will only tolerate so many meetings. It is one thing to humor you in the summertime when no students are around, but another thing entirely during the school year. You cannot expect us to spend every spare minute in this staff room."
Malfoy sat staring blankly at the wall, her lips set in a thin, tight line.
"You told me that you have failed at very little in your life, Headmistress. Do not be surprised if your failures soar to heights you never thought possible by the end of the term." He glanced at Lupin, who was still sitting at the table, looking bewildered. Severus gestured for him to stand as well, and after a hesitation, Lupin did. "I have found in my life that the times when I have failed the most miserably and publicly, upon careful examination of the failure, I have brought it upon myself and been fortunate to fail."
"You think I should just allow everything to go on the same way it always has." She didn't even look at him, and her voice was flat.
"I think you should consider carefully what you wish for," he replied. "There is a magic in this school, and it has nothing to do with spells and wands." He opened the door and gestured for Lupin to preceded him into the corridor, then closed the door firmly behind them.
"What has happened here?" Lupin asked quietly.
Severus frowned at him, wavering between telling Lupin to sod off and answering the question. He settled on answering the question for the moment. "Regalia Malfoy has yet to realize that her role is no longer that of teacher. She is attempting to manage the staff the way she would manage a classroom, and she is expecting the same unquestioning obedience she would expect from students. I don't think she understands her duties as Headmistress."
"What should she be doing differently?"
"Spending more time worrying about keeping peace among the staff," he replied promptly. "Fostering a sense that she supports us, heading the unified front that we should be presenting to the students. Have you ever considered what would happen if a thousand students figured out that our authority over them is contingent on their believing that we have authority…"
Lupin nodded. "The entire staff combined couldn't subdue the first years," he finished.
Severus nodded jerkily. "She is creating friction where it need not exist. Perhaps there is a reason for her—she is young and inexperienced. It does not excuse it, but it explains it. Minerva, on the other hand, is simply being a dunderhead. She knows better, and she's certainly doing her part in responding to Malfoy's baiting."
Lupin cleared his throat. "Listen, Severus. I know that you and I have had our differences. I'm hoping we can put some of that aside in favor of cooperating as colleagues."
"Certainly," Severus replied, and as a slow smile broke out over Lupin's face, Severus continued. "So long as you stay away from me, we can certainly 'cooperate' from opposite ends of the school. Stay out of my path, and there will be no friction from me."
Before Lupin could respond, Severus quickened his pace and veered down a corridor, stalking towards the dungeons.
A/N: I promise that I am trying to give this story equal time to the others I have going. My muse is a busy little critter lately, flitting among all my WiPs.
Excessively perky: lol. I'm sure everyone has some opinions about that school, and I agree with you entirelythere are many changes that need to be made.
Yukka: Thank you! I fretted over the sorting hat song!
Iphi: Since I read your review, I've been debating whether or not to really answer it or to just let the story speak in regards to the war and its place in the school and the story. I'm leaning towards the latter. So far, we've only covered about two weeks, and those have been two weeks during the summer. Certainly the events of the times will be making an appearance again now that the students are back.
As for not liking Malfoythat's certainly your prerogative! There is plenty to dislike about her. She has all the tact of a broomstick ;)
Lou: I'm sorry it took me a month! Hardly record time! As for Remus... well, as you can see from this chapter, he isn't the only one she was 'picking on'.
duj: As usual, you have quite an insight into what's happening between the lines. Regalia is not accustomed to apologizing, and she is not impressed with the lies of omission on Lupin's and Minerva's parts. At the same time, though, she more or less stopped Lupin from telling her something when she was interviewing him. Presumably he was going to admit that he was a werewolf, but how much more would he have 'fessed up to if she hadn't stopped him? I do think the students are going to notice changes. Now, whether they're changes for the better or worse, that remains to be seen.
cecelle: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the characters as I portray them. I liked Snape telling Lupin to stay out of his way, too, and I giggled as I wrote it.
April: I know, I know. I need to get my butt in gear and get this moved over to Lumos. I agree about it in generalSH is more stable and faster and the lack of ads alone is enough to tilt my opinion in that direction. As for the shoe that's waiting to be droppedit's in the wings.
Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed, or just read! I'll try not to go a month without posting again (time just slips awayI really didn't realize it had been so long.)
Jen
